When you love someone, you don’t walk away after one little fight because you can’t deal with the drama. You don’t throw your hands into the air because you had a small disagreement and decide that it must be time to break up. You don’t throw everything that you’ve created away after a small blip in your happiness.

When you love someone, you sit down with them like two mature adults and talk things out. You give them a chance to explain their reasoning. You give them a chance to speak their mind. And when you’re finished discussing the issue, you work on ways to solve the issue. You come to compromises. You think of ways you could both improve. Instead of giving one argument the power to ruin your entire relationship, you allow it to turn you into an even stronger couple.

When you love someone, you fight for them. You sacrifice for them. You work your ass off for them. When you love someone, you don’t give up on them until you’ve exhausted every option. You don’t assume that the relationship is doomed when one thing goes wrong, because you are both willing to put in effort to make the necessary changes. Changes that will improve your relationship.

When you love someone, you don’t support them on their good days and abandon them on their bad days. You don’t disappear on the days when their anxiety is acting up or their depression hits because you aren’t sure what you can say to help. You don’t leave them alone on the days when they are throwing up sick and need to be chauffeured to doctor visits because it’s not your problem. You don’t allow them to suffer on their own because you are a team. You are in this together. You are in everything together — even the things you didn’t sign up for when you started dating.

When you love someone, you accept that your relationship isn’t always going to be easy. Love isn’t always going to be easy. You can’t expect to spend the rest of your life with someone without going through rough patches. Shit happens in life. There is no escaping it — but you can overcome it. You can allow your love to give you the strength to work together to build a life together.

When you love someone, you are there for them, no matter what they are going through. When you love someone, you work you hardest to keep the relationship healthy, because you know that you work better together than you do apart.

When you love someone, you don’t leave when things get difficult, you don’t run away at the first sign of trouble. You put in even more effort than before. You become an even stronger team. Because, when you love someone, when you know you’re with the right someone, you believe that you can make it through anything. And you aren’t going to let anything deter you from your happily ever after.

Living with a chronic illness like Hidradenitis Suppurativa alone can be bad for your mental health. You owe it to yourself to find a significant other who wants to be there for you through good times and bad.